Game: Great Chili Cookoff

Thread: Re: Why place counter on ingredient selection instead of simply taking the card?

grayskale — 2008-11-22T21:33:44+00:00

BugLaden wrote:
Ah, I understand now. The cards have to stay on the table because the ORDER of the players to choose ingredients is determined by the cards on the table.

Picking a card up as your choice could remove that information, and no one would know who was next in picking order.

Thanks!

Exactly right. The 1st time we played we just picked up the cards as we selected them and promptly couldn't figure out who chose next. The little peppers seemed silly, but they're actually quite clever...

Thread: Re: Why place counter on ingredient selection instead of simply taking the card?

BugLaden — 2008-11-22T21:09:26+00:00

Ah, I understand now. The cards have to stay on the table because the ORDER of the players to choose ingredients is determined by the cards on the table.

Picking a card up as your choice could remove that information, and no one would know who was next in picking order.

Thanks!

Thread: Re: Why place counter on ingredient selection instead of simply taking the card?

grayskale — 2008-11-22T18:44:18+00:00

You need to have the cards remain in play so you can determine choosing order.

Thread: Why place counter on ingredient selection instead of simply taking the card?

BugLaden — 2008-11-22T18:29:44+00:00

After playing this game once and reading the rules several times, it strikes me odd why a player places their chili token on a card as a means to indicate their selected ingredient.

Why not simply take the card?

Thread: Re: What we learned in our first play of Great Chili Cookoff

Starsunsky — 2008-10-12T03:57:25+00:00

Yes, it's probably the weakness of Great CHili Cookoff with few players. That's why I usually pull it out with at least 6 players as a fast filler. That would be quite fun with a large group.

Thread: What we learned in our first play of Great Chili Cookoff

stormseeker75 — 2008-10-12T02:09:57+00:00

I received Great Chili Cookoff in a trade about a month ago but I hadn't had the chance to play the game until today. I had read the rules a couple times so that I was ready to play. When we took the game out, I explained the rules to my mom and my fiance plus I showed them examples. We shuffled the cards and began playing the game, but it was soon obvious to us that the game was far too random to actually be worth playing. I know it probably sounds rediculous to say that, but after 3 turns it was obvious that luck was the chief skill necessary to play this game. We decided to stop playing then and there as it was obvious to us that it was going nowhere.

As we discussed what was happening, we shared our recipes to see what people were working for. Bianca had a recipe that required chocolate, but in fact nobody had a chocolate card. No matter what she did, she couldn't have possibly completed her one recipe which rendered it completely and totally useless. I actually was on my way to completing one of my recipes as was my mom, but we all thought it was wrong that one person could literally be out of the running before a single card was even played. However, we all felt like there was something worth saving. I think there is actually a good game hiding under the luck and Bianca and I resolved to figure out a way to make it happen.

Overall, our first play of Great Chili Cookoff was a total disaster. However, I think it can be salvaged. When we fix it, we'll try it again and hopefully we'll get through a whole game this time.

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dan4th — 2008-08-13T13:38:36+00:00

Chili meeples

Thread: Re: Horrible Taste in Mouth

fbranham — 2008-06-11T15:55:34+00:00

Oddly enough, we thoroughly playtested two options:

1. Playing 8 hands, and using your best 7 cards. This made it EXTREMELY easy to complete a recipe, far more than you'd think.

2. Using a set pool of cards depending on the number of players. That tended to ensure that the cards for the rarer recipes were available. The downsides were....the rare ingredient recipes became a bit easier to do. Scores WERE really close.

Somehow, our groups found we actually liked the game less with option #2. My justification was that if you got screwed by the cards you got to whine about it. And we enjoyed the bit of pain involved with trying to work out if someone was hanging onto a mustard, and hoping to let it slip by unopposed.

I'll see if I can harrass Dan into posting the deck distributions sorted by player.

Thread: Re: Horrible Taste in Mouth

Oldstench — 2008-06-11T15:42:24+00:00

Do you wear a cowboy hat?

Thread: Horrible Taste in Mouth

Nich — 2008-06-10T22:21:24+00:00

This past sunday, there was a game day hosted at an all you can eat pizza shop. In addition to playing Beowolf, I had a unique experience to play "The Great Chili CookOff". I say Unique because it is a game that I will not be playing again.

We played through 3 rounds of the game but after the first round, I found that the game did not suit my tastes for a number of reasons.

Theme: You're cooking Chili. It isn't exactly the most exciting of themes to be honest. It is a novelty idea though and I while I wasn't impressed with the theme, it doesn't affect the core game play.

Cards: There are three types of cards. The first type of cards are the Recipe cards. Each recipe card features a name, a point value and a number of required Ingredient icons. The key issue with the recipe cards is that every recipe requires 7 ingredients. Some of these ingredients are very rare(1 chocolate, 2 mustards in the ingredient deck). So, while the recipe is worth more points if it requires a rare ingredient, it also means that you may be in a huge amount of trouble. The second type of cards are the ingredient cards (Meat, Mustard, Onions, Chilis, Chocolate, etc). Each ingredient has a specific number of cards in the deck but they are not equal by any stretch of the imagination. The last type really shouldn't be counted as it is simply a list of the ingredient cards in the ingredients deck.

Game Play: The real problem with this game comes in combining the game play and the card set up. Each player gets dealt 2 Recipes and 7 ingredients. The point of the game is to gather the ingredients you need through winning positions each round in order to decide what ingredient you want. You can't play ingredients straight out of your hand to make your recipe. You have to play them onto the board and hope you win the hand or no one else wants that ingredient before you. Because of this, if you have a lot of rares, you may be in trouble as you most likely won't win them back once they are played.
Coupled with this, since there are only 1 chocolate and 2 mustard cards, if you draw a Mustard requiring recipe and a chocolate required recipe, you are going to be hurting. This is due to the fact that undealt cards are placed in the discard pile outside of the game and can not be used. As happened in every game played, the recipe cards were dealt and there was no way for several players to have a chance at completing their recipe.

If you can't complete your recipe, you can't gain the bonus points (6) and thus your score will always be very low. Also, you can't gain the value of cards not on your recipe, so you can't even play to collect points for the most part due to your recipe.

With the cards you need in the discard pile, it is highly possible by the third out of 7 rounds in each game that you already know you can't win the turn due to the ingredients and you won't be scoring any real points(5 or 6 to other people's 21). Once it happens twice, there is no possible way for you to ever catch up. If you have 8 total points and someone else already has 50+, you aren't going to be having fun.

The route of the problem, outside of the ingredient deck, is the fact that every single recipe requires 7 cards. You have no margin for error and you can easily be thrown out of a game by the third pass. The game would be more friendly and allow for more competition if recipes required less than 7 ingredients each.

Overall, both my friend and I failed to find any enjoyment in a game where you start out 6 points behind everyone else at the start of every hand simply because of the recipe cards dealt to you and the cards discarded. This is one game that I won't be buying nor will I be playing it in the future.

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ddkk — 2007-08-22T09:41:50+00:00

Great Chili Cookoff - Recipe Cards (2/2)

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ddkk — 2007-08-22T09:40:27+00:00

Great Chili Cookoff - Recipe Cards (1/2)

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ddkk — 2007-08-22T09:38:27+00:00

Great Chili Cookoff - Menu Card

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ddkk — 2007-08-22T09:34:59+00:00

Great Chili Cookoff - Ingredient Cards

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pdclose — 2007-08-03T18:20:12+00:00

Two player starting hands.

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pdclose — 2007-08-03T18:19:34+00:00

All the cards in the game!

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pdclose — 2007-08-03T18:19:12+00:00

Game box complete contents.

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pdclose — 2007-08-03T18:18:46+00:00

Circle of heat! Starting pawn and all the little chili marker pawns.

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lucifugo — 2007-04-03T10:42:27+00:00

Thread: The Great Chili Cookoff -- Session Report

gschloesser — 2007-03-24T19:43:28+00:00

Editor’s Note: My full review of The Great Chili Cookoff will be published in Knucklebones magazine. What follows is an abbreviated version.

It is rare that my wife requests that I purchase a game, as she is already appalled by the magnitude of my gaming collection. However, after playing The Great Chili Cookoff at Gulf Games 19 in Panama City Beach, Florida, she was smitten and desired a copy. It was just the type of light card game she tends to enjoy, and the cooking theme was the “icing on the cake”.

Designed by Dan Baden, The Great Chili Cookoff challenges players to acquire the necessary ingredients to successfully make one of their chili recipes. Each recipe requires a unique combination of seven ingredients, and range from the beefy “Meat Lovers” to the peanut butter laced “Nutty Buddy”.

Each player receives two recipes and seven ingredients, all of which are kept secret from their opponents. Ingredients range from the common tomatoes and beef, to the rare super rare chocolate. A handy player aid card lists the number of each ingredient type that is in the deck, as well as their value. However, not all ingredients will be in play in any round, so it is impossible to utilize card counting techniques with one-hundred percent accuracy.

Each turn, in turn order, players play one ingredient card to the table. Each ingredient card pictures the ingredient, as well as its point value and bidding strength. The player playing the ingredient with the greatest strength gets to choose the ingredient he desires from those played. If more than one player plays an ingredient with equal strength, the player playing it last in the round chooses first.

After all players have marked an ingredient card, these are taken by the players and kept separate from the cards remaining in their hands. These will be the ingredients a player uses to fulfill the requirements of his chili recipe.

Once all cards have been played and each player has selected seven ingredients, players reveal if they have successfully completed one of their recipes. If so, the player earns the amount listed on the recipe, which ranges 16 – 27 points, depending upon the scarcity of the ingredients required. If a player failed to collect all of the ingredients required to complete a recipe, he still earns points for each of the ingredients that he was able to use. Points are recorded, new recipes and ingredients dealt, and another round is conducted in the same fashion. After three rounds, the player with the most points is named “Master Chef” and wins the game.

While there is nothing terribly taxing or deep here, The Great Chili Cookoff is fun to play. I compare it to games such as Richard Borg’s Pig Pile or Reiner Knizia’s Too Many Cooks. There are some choices to make, although none of them are terribly taxing. My one big concern is that by the third round, it is quite possible that one or more players are out of contention. This situation can be mitigated, if not outright resolved, by doubling the scores in the final round.

The Great Chili Cookoff plays to completion in about 30 minutes or so, making it a good choice as an appetizer before, after or between main courses. It is also a good choice for family outings or social gatherings, with an added bonus being that it can accommodate up to seven players. I actually plan on obtaining several more copies, as they will make great prizes for our neighborhood chili cookoff! It appears that the game is diverse and tasty enough to satisfy many different palates!

Gail, Jim and Rhonda successfully completed their first two recipes, but Gail held a slim lead due to the difficulty of her recipes. Kevin suffered throughout, failing to complete a recipe. On the final turn, both Gail and Rhonda once again completed their recipe, but Rhonda’s was significantly more difficult. This enabled her to slip past Gail and win the cookoff.

Round-by-round cumulative scores:

Round 1: Rhonda 24, Bo 23, Jim 23, Gail 22, Greg 15, Kevin 7, Sheila 6
Round 2: Gail 49, Rhonda 46, Jim 44, Bo 31, Sheila 29, Greg 27,
Kevin 17
Round 3: Rhonda 70, Gail 65, Jim 63, Sheila 52, Greg 48, Bo 44,
Kevin 29

Ratings: Gail 7, Jim 7, Sheila 7, Rhonda 6, Bo 6, Greg 6

Thread: Chili Today, Hot Tamale…

otha62 — 2007-03-09T23:07:45+00:00

Overview
The Great Chili Cook-Off is a card game for 2 to 7 players, with a mix of set collection and trick taking. It’s designed by Dan Baden and published by Jolly Rogers Games. As the title implies, players are in a cook-off, with each trying to make the best chili. They play cards in hopes of capturing the right ingredients for their recipes; they score points for their ingredients and bonus points for successfully completing a recipe. The player with the most points after three rounds wins the game. Playing time varies depending upon the number of players, but should be well under an hour.

Out of the Box
The contents include 75 cards, 7 pepper tokens, 1 starting marker, and a small bi-lingual (English & German) rulebook. The cards are made from pretty decent stock and nicely illustrated to reinforce the chili theme. The tokens are wooden, of 7 different colors, and are shaped like a hot pepper. The black starting marker is a wooden pawn. The rules are short and simple and, with several examples of game play, should have you playing in no time.

The Cards
The 75 cards are broken down into 15 recipe cards, 53 ingredient cards, and 7 menu cards. Each recipe card is unique, with symbols that represent the ingredients needed to make that specific type of chili. The number on the bottom right indicates the maximum value of the recipe if all 7 ingredients are collected. Each ingredient card has 3 key pieces of information. In the center is a picture and name of the ingredient (i.e., tomato, meat, onion, pepper, etc.). In the upper left corner is the strength value of the card which is used to determine who wins each trick. In the lower right is the point value of the ingredient and it’s used when the ingredients are scored at the end of each hand. The menu cards are just for information, as they list the types of ingredients, along with their corresponding value and number.

Set Up
Each player will select a pepper token and a menu. The recipe cards and ingredient cards are separated and shuffled separately. Deal each player two recipe cards and seven ingredient cards, all face-down. A random player is selected to start and is given the starting marker.

Game Play
During your turn, you play one ingredient card from your hand face up in the middle of the playing area. Play then passes to the left. Once every one has played a card, determine which card has the highest strength value; in case of a tie, of the tied cards the one played last would be the highest. The player who played the highest card wins the trick; the winner gets the starter marker, and will place his/her pepper token on his/her choice of the ingredient cards played in that trick. Play then proceeds to the player with the next highest card who will select an ingredient card in the same manner, and so on until every one has an ingredient. Each player will take their captured ingredient card and place it in their playing area. The player with the starter marker (the ‘winner’ of the last trick) begins the next trick.

Once all 7 tricks have played out, you will have 7 ingredients. Check your ingredients against your recipe cards and decide which recipe you’ll want to score; you should choose the recipe that’ll give you the most points which is not necessarily the one in which you have the most ingredients. For each ingredient that’s in that recipe, you’ll receive the point value for that ingredient (found on the lower right of the ingredient card). If you collect all 7 ingredients for your chosen recipe, you collect an additional 6 bonus points. Record the score and prepare for the next round. The player with the highest total cumulative score after three rounds of play wins.

Observations
While there is an element of chance in all trick taking or set collection card games, The Great Chili Cook-Off has a bit more than most. This is primarily due to the recipe cards; while it adds a new element to this type of card game, it also increases the impact of luck. Some recipes are worth more potential points while with others you have a much better chance of collecting all the ingredients. What further compounds this is when you play with less than a full complement of players. For more than half of the ingredients, there are only 1 or 2 cards of each in the whole deck. So it’s very possible that even with two recipe cards, you'll stand no chance of completing either one since some ingredients may not even be in play. For instance, in a 4-player game, with 7 ingredients cards going to each player, that leaves 25 cards out of play, which could render recipes with rare ingredients practically useless. This doesn’t ruin the game, it’s just something you need to be aware of; it’s also why I like this game best with 5+ players.

That being said, I also find the recipe cards to be the most interesting part of the game. Having two options gives you a little bit of leeway in determining how you want to play your tricks. Most tricks, I try to grab ingredients that fit both recipes; however, when rare ingredients show up in a trick, and it’s in one of your recipes, that goes out the window. Then you must decide which recipe to go with and stick to it; in most instances, once you either claim a rare ingredient or pass on it, you’re pretty much committed to just one recipe. It’s also helpful if you’re playing last when rare ingredients make an appearance, since you hold the tie-breaking advantage and know what card you’ll need to claim it. So hand management is very important; and while claiming a card first can be key to completing a recipe, it also means that you have to start the next trick. Since playing first is a disadvantage, you’ll want to make sure that claiming a card outweighs the risk of starting the next trick.

When it comes to recipe cards, for what it’s worth, I tend to try to complete the ones with the more readily available ingredients. While they don’t have the scoring potential of the more exotic ones, they’re easier to complete and thus it’s easier to receive the bonus points. And on a curious note, although it doesn’t affect the game play whatsoever, I wonder why there are no beans among the ingredient cards…

Conclusions
The Great Chili Cook-Off makes for a pretty good filler; it’s quick, light, has an amusing theme, and is family friendly. It’s also easy to teach and accommodates a lot of players. While it’s a little more random than I like, it was fun all the same and I still enjoyed playing. I’m especially fond of trick-taking games, and while this one might not be my first choice, it’ll get some more play time, particularly with larger groups. And if you’re a fan of chili, either eating or cooking, you might just want to pick this game up to get some new ideas for your favorite recipes. It might grow on me a bit more with further play but for now, I rate The Great Chili Cook-Off a “spicy” 6.

Thread: Tastes Great, Less Filing

lyman — 2006-10-30T22:05:18+00:00

The Great Chili Cook-Off is the first game designed by enthusiast and collector (not to mention boardgamegeek) Dan Baden. It is squarely aimed at the family market and thus has a similar weight to games such as Mama Mia, Too Many Cooks, Coloretto and Six Nimmt.

At the start of the game, each player is dealt two chili recipes consisting of seven ingredients, and seven ingredient cards. There are also enough summary cards to go round describing the distribution of ingredients, however, I quickly mentally divided things into a few catgories such as the common ingredients (tomatoes, meat) and the rare ones (chocolate and peanut butter)!

Each ingredient card has two numbers. The strength influences the bidding. In each round everyone in turn order (more on this in a second) plays a card and the player whose card has the highest strength gets to choose a card to add to their pile, followed by the player who played the second highest card etc.

You might imagine that if everyone immediately rmeoved their choice, it would quickly get chaotic with everyone trying to remember what card they played, but this problem is alleviated by the wooden chilis! Instead of taking the card you mark it with your chili and at the end everyone retrieves his or her chili and the chosen card! There is also a first player marker which each turn goes to the person who received first choice of cards.

Ties are resolved in favor of whoever played last which makes it a disadvantage to go first, so one if always weighing a good drafting permission in this hand with a possible lousy position in the next. Furthermore, at the end of the hand you score the points for only one of your recipe cards (you can delay choosing which until the end) with a six point bonus for drafting all seven ingredients. After three rounds the person with the highest score wins.

The production quality is high. The cards have a good texture, and the backs of the three types of cards (recipes, ingredients and the summary cards) are easy to distinguish. And did I menion wooden chilis (okay not quite pastel camels but almost as cute).

Overall as a light-medium family card game I rated it an 8 and expect it to see the table quite often when I am in a crowd hankering after something in this genre.

Thread: Spicy, yet still light enough for the family

Henry Rhombus — 2006-10-12T12:27:07+00:00

The Great Chili Cookoff

This game has been described as a trick-taking variation, but a better description of Chili Cookoff would involve card drafting. Each player starts the game with two chili recipe cards and seven ingredient cards, which range from common items like tomatoes, meat, and chile peppers to outre chili flavorings like peanut butter and chocolate.

Each recipe card lists seven ingredients, and no two recipes have the same combination of ingredients. The Meat Lover's, for example, depicts four meat, a tomato, a chile and mustard, while Steve's Sin has two tomatoes, two chiles, meat, an onion, and chocolate. (Detailed recipes for each of the cards are included in a separate booklet.)

After randomly choosing a start player, players take turns playing a single ingredient card to the table. Each card lists a point value and a strength. The point value is always the same for a particular ingredient (e.g., a tomato is 1 point, an onion 3), but the strength of an ingredient might vary. Tomatoes range in a strength from 1-7, for example, whereas all peanut butter cards have a strength of 4.

Whoever plays the strongest card claims one of the face-up cards; whoever played the next strongest card then claims a card, and so on until all the cards have been claimed. Players can claim their own cards, and ties in card strength are won by whoever played later. (The winner of a turn plays first in the next round, usually putting him or her at a disadvantage.)

After seven turns, each player will have collected seven ingredient cards. You then compare those seven ingredients against your two recipe cards, scoring each recipe separately and counting only those ingredients that are needed for the recipe. Collecting all seven ingredients for a recipe adds six bonus points to that total. Whichever recipe total is higher is your point total for the round; the player with the highest score after three rounds wins the game.

The Great Chili Cookoff scales from 2-7 players, and as you might expect the game experience changes greatly depending on the number of players you have. With only a few players, the ingredient cards you need for a recipe might not be among the cards in play, which gives you an incentive to take cards away from others since you can't help yourself. With more players, negative play doesn't work as well, but the chocolate and honey that you need will likely hit the table at some point, so you have to figure out how to position yourself to win one when it does show.

As with most trick-taking games, each hand is a puzzle that you need to solve. Which ingredient cards can win tricks, or perhaps more importantly, which cards can win tricks and depict an ingredient you need? As each turn plays out, you'll debate the merits of playing a strong card (to let you choose early) versus playing a card that puts lots of similar ingredients on the table (to increase your chances of getting one).

The Great Chili Cookoff is light enough for family play, but more serious cardplayers can also have fun with this quick game. Recipe drafting might even be possible once players become familiar with the game; you could receive your ingredients, look them over, then do a clockwise and counter-clockwise round of drafting. This would allow players more control over their goals—something a few players mention in test games—although everyone would then know exactly how to hose you!